CHAP. 1] THE DOMINION OF CANADA 659
asserted the same principle of the prerogative of the Queen
being as extensive in Her Majesty's Colonial possessions as
In Great Britain where it was not expressly limited by local
law or statute; in that case they decided that by the
law, the Civil Code and Procedure Code of the Province of
Quebec, the prerogative was limited to the case of the common
 debtor being an officer liable to account to the Crown
for public moneys collected or held by him. If the prerogative
 existed it also was available to the provinces, which
would otherwise be reduced to the rank of dependent municipal
 instrumentalities, but for this contention the Privy
Council was unable to find either principle or authority.
They continued :—
Their Lordships do not think it necessary to examine, in
minute detail, the provisions of the Act of 1867, which nowhere
 profess to curtail in any respect the rights and privileges
 of the Crown, or to disturb the relations then subsisting
between the Sovereign and the provinces! The object of
the Act was neither to weld the provinces into one, nor to
subordinate provincial governments to a central authority,
but to create a Federal Government in which they should all
be represented, entrusted with the exclusive administration
of affairs in which they had a common interest, each province
retaining its independence and autonomy. That object was
accomplished by distributing, between the Dominion and
the provinces, all powers executive and legislative, and all
Public property and revenues which had previously belonged
to the provinces ; so that the Dominion Government should
be vested with such of these powers, property, and revenues
as were necessary for the due performance of its constitutional
functions, and that the remainder should be retained by the
Provinces for the purposes of provincial government. But,
In so far as regards those matters which, by s. 92, are specially
reserved for provincial legislation, the legislation of each
province continues to be freefrom the control of the Dominion,
' This passage serves as a useful reminder of the incorrectness of the
doctrine as developed by Mr. Higinbotham to mean that no instructions
could be given to a Colonial Governor by the Crown, and asserted by the
Parliament, of Victoria, December 22, 1869; Parliamentary Debates, ix.
2670, 2671. Lefroy, op. cit., p. 121, is quite right in repudiating this
doctrine, but it is not involved in Mr. Blake’s views or those of Burton J.,
and the Ontario Government.

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